Former President Donald Trump’s legal team has now requested that Justice Clarence Thomas, who has jurisdiction over the 11th Circuit, vacate the stay by the court that permitted the Department of Justice to continue investigating and reviewing the documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate during the FBI raid.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued an injunction against the DOJ over the use of the over 100 classified documents seized for investigative purposes.
The 11th Circuit overturned Cannon’s order and stopped court-appointed Special Master Raymond Dearie from having to review all of those documents. Dearie’s review is now set to only focus on the non-classified documents seized.
Trump’s legal team is now asking that the Supreme Court intervenes.
In the filing, they state, “The unprecedented circumstances presented by this case—an investigation of the Forty-Fifth President of the United States by the administration of his political rival and successor—compelled the District Court to acknowledge the significant need for enhanced vigilance and to order the appointment of a Special Master to ensure fairness, transparency, and maintenance of the public trust.”
“That appointment order is simply not appealable on an interlocutory basis and was never before the Eleventh Circuit. Nonetheless, the Eleventh Circuit granted a stay of the Special Master Order, effectively compromising the integrity of the well-established policy against piecemeal appellate review and ignoring the District Court’s broad discretion without justification.”
The Justice Department has refused to comment on Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
Last week though they said that they were working on an appeal to Cannon’s decision to appoint a special master as it leaves them unable to investigate and review documents that might be evidence of a crime.
